Kodi 16.0 “Jarvis” – Release Candidate 2

It’s time for the second Release Candidate for Kodi v16. Getting the first release candidate ready took a bit longer than we anticipated due to some problems along the way though they should be under control now. With this second release candidate we added a small number of fixes that users brought to our attention. Since we only have a small team and we can’t test it all we must rely on users reporting potential problems on our forum and we try to fix them within our limited spare time. All in all this release is looking like it’s quite solid so far.

Some of you commented on several occasion that we should first fix the “known problems” in our previous versions before jumping to the next one. The fact is that fixing those problems correctly is such an undertaking that we simply can’t keep working on the previous one. Our team vision is to keep moving forward and along the way release version for users to use and enjoy that are considered stable enough. We don’t force people to upgrade so if you like an older Kodi version for some reason just keep using it. This vision is known as Release Early Release Often (RERO) on which we’ll make a more in depth review soon.

Fixes done in this release compared to Release Candidate 1:

• Additional fixes done on saving setting when switching between different profiles

• Increase time-out when searching for audio devices on Windows which solves some cases of Kodi not starting

• Android now support a Surface Rendering which keeps the interface at normal HD resolution while allows playback of 4K on supported devices

• Removal of the infamous libstagefright on Android which served us for the past years while the Android platform matured to a fully fetaured MediaCodec

• Add-on manager underwent heavy changes which includes slightly different structure, per add-on auto-update on/off switch, better update/rollback support to choose from repos,

• Extend the included keyboard layouts which includes Korean and Chinese

• Improved multi-touch support which now also works on Linux

• Gives skin developers a more reliable platform to work from and reduce amount of work for adapting to new Kodi versions

• Greatly improved audio and video playback in general

With the list above we only highlighted some of the more noticeable features. The complete list is huge which could fill several pages. A lot of changes went in Kodi 16 like removing old code, splitting up parts in more logical chunks and making it all more resilient to future changes. All these changes are part of a massive change list that only makes sense to developers actually knowing what the source code does. In short we will not bother you with summing up that list. It’s just something that is worth mentioning that not all improvements have to be actual features and are visible to users. We prefer that the program actually works than adding new bells and whistles. Most of the times new features are just a side effect of cleaning up our code.

Improvements so far in version 16

More in depth information can be found through the following links about the 16 release. Visit the other announcements listed below for previous beta fixes.

Add-ons

General: So far in version 16 there are no add-on changes that would impact any add-ons except for PVR. Since our 12.x Frodo release there have been some gradual changes but in general all add-ons, even from that time should still work, of course there are some exceptions. If the add-ons worked in Gotham, Helix and Isengard then we are happy to say that all these add-ons should still work.

Skins: Sadly due to the amount of changes we’ll have to announce that skins will have certain parts non working. This beta will mark any version 15 skin as incompatible and will ask you to switch back to Confluence. This means that for you to continue using Kodi 16.0 you will have to switch back to Confluence or wait till the skin you use has been updated in our repository. Good new however is that a variety of skin have already start updating to latest changes.Available skins: The following skins are already updated for version 16 and will auto-update when you upgrade. We’re sure more will follow soon.

• Aeon Nox 5

• Amber

• AppTV

• Black Glass Nova

• Chroma

• Cirrus Extended

• Confluence

• Eunique

• KOver

• Mimic

• Nebula

• Rapier

• re-Touched

• Titan

• Transparency!

Conclusion

Should you want to download and install this build please visit our download page.

Official remotes

In addition to creating Kodi, the members of Team Kodi have created official remotes to be installed on your tablet or phone. These can take control of your Kodi installation from where you browse your movies, tvshows, PVR/DVR, start add-ons and navigate through the interface.

Kore™ (Android)

Official Kodi Remote (iOS)

Like Kodi itself, both official remotes are free and open source software.

Donations or getting involved

Getting involved is quite easy. Simply take the plunge and start using these 16.0 Jarvis builds. If you use these builds, we encourage you to report problems with these builds on our forum first and after that, if asked, submit bugs on Trac (following this guide: How to submit a bug report). Do note that we need detailed information so we can investigate the issue. We also appreciate providing support in our Forums where you can. You can of course also follow or help promote Kodi on all available social networks. Read more on the get involved page.
We are always happy to receive a donation by which you show your support and appreciation. All donations go towards the XBMC foundation and are typically used for travel to attend conferences, any necessary paperwork and legal fees, purchase necessary hardware and licenses for developers and hopefully the yearly XBMC Foundation Developers Conference.

Discussion - 52 Comments

Beni WonderJan 29, 2016

kodi is exceptional! can’t wait for final release.

gnaylorFeb 25, 2016

good

Beni WonderJan 29, 2016

you guys have done a great jobn so far. but i’d love to see some changes in the next release. is it possible to create a fixced folder for addons, so that when users select “install from zip file” a user defined addon folder will open automaticaly? users will be required to save all fdownloaded addons in the desired folder, for ease of access.

xOnurJan 31, 2016

i agree

SamDJan 29, 2016

Do you plan to add sharpen shaders soon?
I use lumasharpen on my 5 year-old netbook and it’s very great.

Now there are most advanced shaders like super-res or adaptive-sharpen.

KhalidJan 29, 2016

Great stuff!!! Many thanks for all your work

AtreyuJan 29, 2016

Thanks guys!

One thing i noticed is that since Jarvis, kodi is not able to run for long periods of time.
After a day of idling you are always presented with a ‘kodi has stopped working’ screen.
This is a bit of a regression compared to Isengard as i never needed my keyboard in sight, before.

This happens on 4 different, very vanilla, windows installs (8.1 -10).
Can anyone run Jarvis for longer than 24 hours straight..?

I’ve got the jarvis RC running on openELEC and have run it for months without issue.

RebelJan 29, 2016

Wow, RC1 came out 8 days ago, and you’ve been running it for months? Kudos to you!

MartijnJan 29, 2016

How about people are actually using test build way before RC comes out……

atreyuJan 30, 2016

Quite often, people run testbuilds or their own makes, do this could perfectly be the case..

atreyuJan 30, 2016

Thanks for your input.
I only experience this in Windows.
But you are right; if it keeps bothering me i will do some collecting and up logs

There is something else that doesn’t like ling runtimes (epg data will not get updated) so for now i schedule a daily recycle of kodi.exe. Does the trick for now..

ExmoondJan 30, 2016

yes, running it 6 days in a row and no problem (talking about RC1)

AtreyuFeb 03, 2016

Thanks for confirming.
I have narrowed it down to power management; Jarvis seems to be much less tolerant to sleep mode. I’ll find a way around this

tmtisfreeJan 29, 2016

Translator here: the strings’ inclusion from Transifex seems erratic at best. What about updating strings before each release (beta, RC) so that we can test properly? Thanks.

macJan 29, 2016

Please make Kodi for samsung tizen

jonJan 30, 2016

Why don’t you go make it? or just appreciate what you get for FREE and make the most of it.

Legions77Jan 29, 2016

Hey Kodi,

Do you think it would be possible to add a Cut and paste option just like you have done with the renameing and deleteing options ?

Jeff NesbittJan 29, 2016

is there a apk for kodi 16 rc 2

Colin MillerJan 30, 2016

You are all amazing, thank you keep up the good work

mazeyJan 30, 2016

Zoom still not working properly. image is squashed.

Muongol1982Jan 30, 2016

Great improvements, love it so far.
Only strange thing is that when playing HD movies downloaded from my Iphone all the movies from the Iphone distort, but other 1080 movies are find.
Had to revert back to 15.2

NikkiFeb 06, 2016

Kodi team rocks team is absolutly talented you guys deserve huge donation and praise thank you for making my day awesome

Richard H.Jan 30, 2016

I’m pretty excited to open the package. Like a XMAS present.

mheebJan 30, 2016

what is the best off the shelf kodi player with 4K, atmos, true HD, DTS-HD features?

YeshimJan 30, 2016

First of all, thanks! Kodi is great

Second, I want to give some feedback
1. The paused pop-up often never goes down by itself after a few seconds after pressing play again.
2. A setting where the paused pop-up disappears even during pause would be nice. Why? Because sometimes you pause because the scene is beautiful and you want to look at the picture as a painting for a little while
3. Downloading the first available subtitle is a cool feature. However it is often a hit and miss because most often the first text is one of those hearing impaired ones. How about a setting that allows “Download the first available subtitle that is both SYNC and NOT HI”?

I see a lot of “Well, why don´t you go and code it for yourself then instead of complaining about it”. Sometimes I agree that some people come off whiney in their feedback and a tone like that could be called for I guess, but constructive SW development feedback should be praised in my opinion. I hope you will accept my thoughts

BR Yeshim

KodroidJan 31, 2016

Any chance of a fix for this major SMB problem with Windows 10 1511 update before Kodi 16 is final?

Looks good. Only have one question when are we going to get official native support for 60 fps videos and up conversion to 60 fps for 24 fps and 30 fps videos? I know some community members have done it already, but its in an unofficial build and I don’t like using unofficial builds. I only use official builds released in the Downloads section here on Kodi.tv and on the Google Play store.

relayer35Jan 31, 2016

You say you don’t force users to upgrade, but how many old version are scrapers still supported? If an API changes for TheTVdb or something, do you go back to the older version and fix it there too? Just wondering.

MartijnJan 31, 2016

Gotham still gets updates for that for now

Relayer35Jan 31, 2016

Is there a set standard as to how many versions back get the updates? I had a Frodo install set up that I had to abandon as one of the scrapers stopped working. Each newer version has caused some videos that played correctly not to play correctly. With the faster release schedule will you support the older versions longer?

Laura MMJan 31, 2016

Hi, I only heard about Kodi on Thursday, found your website on Friday and now I have it installed on my PC (love it!).
I’m no techie, but I followed along with a YouTube video by Spoonfed Productions.
My glitch: TV Shows does not appear on the main screen – everything else works fine… just looking for a link to get PVR programs etc.

BTJan 31, 2016

Are stub files finally going to stop saying there is No Optical Drive attached? I want to input all my optical media into the library but not play them from Kodi. I want my custom message to display the disk number so I can go and put it in my blu-ray player.

snorkelFeb 01, 2016

Does anyone know if Jarvis can watch a recording in progress without it stopping?
I know that the SMPC fork fixed this but last I tried in the 15.2 release the playback would stop at whatever length was already record when your started watching.

NJDHockeyfanFeb 02, 2016

I installed Jarvis over the weekend and haven’t had any problems except for a handful of crashes when starting up. It only crashes once then great the rest of the time. Its powerful and fantastic! I am using an Android box.

SteveFeb 02, 2016

I have noticed on my end testing kodi 16 rc2 that if you set auto updates to never and use the manual update button it causes kodi 16 rc2 to crash on windows and android when searching through addons within repos. After you let it auto update once and it updates a addon then the manual update button works. It has been this way since beta days. Nothing shows in log file showing the cause, even with full debugging turned on. I thought I would mention it and see if others have this problem with repos installed. Other then this minor issue, Kodi 16 is moving right along. Thanks to all the developers for continuing to make Kodi even better.

KenedyFeb 02, 2016

How do I download the new one?
Because nothing is working on my android tv box

Phil SeamanFeb 03, 2016

Is there an issue with the installer as when I run it under Windows 10 I get a pop-op that states:

Kodi setup

Windows Vista or above required.

This program can not be run on Windows XP.

mazeyFeb 03, 2016

flickers when it goes to play the next video.

mediacodec (surface) zoom not working properly on bravia (disabling it fixes zoom).

pressing action bar (bravia remote) causes playback to stop.

rest seems fine. ty

ikramFeb 03, 2016

I have downloaded KODI apk on my Andriod M-Box, however I don’t know the substitute of mouse right click to the M-Box remote control.

KODI GURUs please help.

mazeyFeb 03, 2016

if your using v16 you can hold down the OK/enter key for a few seconds to bring it up.

My only request in the future release is to work on creating playlist easier. in another way add an “Add to playlist” button when surfing inside the library.

Thank you.

SzymonFeb 06, 2016

There is something weird with this release my tvheadend stream all corrupt. Full of bad frames while tvheadend does not report uncorrectable errors. Video is not smooth – it is jerky.

Joe DadeyFeb 14, 2016

I downloaded this for my android phone to use in conjunction with a VR BOX (Google cardboard). Looks awesome, but I found that the interface kept reverting to 3D disabled (video settings under system) whenever I’d play a 3D content. I know it’s not release yet, so I’m sure it’s a bug that will get worked out by the time it releases.. Awesome work!

CodyMar 01, 2016

I just installed Jarvis today I’m guessing it’s the official release. I also have the official remote from you guys that I’ve used for some time now as I Use laptop to TV and it’s the easiest way. I’ve had issues with the Rc’s and givin me a bad IP that wouldn’t work with the remote. Now that it’s back to a 192 IP I figured it would work. The remote won’t detect my kodi I have running and when I put the info in myself it still won’t connect and says timeout error. I’ve never seen that message before. Any help would be greatly appreciated as I’ve held off until this remote works with it. Hoping I can finally get in Jarvis now.

Hi Martijn!
I’m a fan of your blog and want to say I love the objective form to write your texts. Your posts have been of great importance to me and I always come back here for new information. Congratulations for the work and wish you luck and success. Thanks for sharing all this with us.

DaveMar 06, 2016

Home menu shortcuts are been removed after Jarvis 16.0 reboots . Any fix ? Thanks

KrognesMar 17, 2016

Unable Kodi 16 and working after update, it does not record movies, I search by year or katogori so nothing happens, and the series I have on or guardians so I get no files what’s wrong

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About Kodi

Kodi is a free and open source media player application developed by the XBMC Foundation, a non-profit technology consortium. Kodi is available for multiple operating-systems and hardware platforms, featuring a 10-foot user interface for use with televisions and remote controls. It allows users to play and view most videos, music, podcasts, and other digital media files from local and network storage media and the internet.